Valentines Day

When I was a little girl I remember my mom going out of her way to make Valentines Day a special day for us.  She was always good (much better than I am) at making things fun and making me feel like I was special...something that the middle child of five really needs sometimes.  Since the past eight weeks of my life have been consumed with Sophie (my own live little dollie to play with!) I haven't gotten to spend as much time making life fun for the boys.  We've had time together, don't get me wrong.  How could we not when the school district calls a snow day every other day?  And a lot of that time we've had fun, but I don't really recall going out of my way to make things fun.  So for Valentines Day I wanted to do it up special like.

I bought them each a little box of crispy chocolates (thank you Target dollar section) and set to work making heart shaped clues while the big boys were at school and Kade was like this:

Naptime on my bed

I hid the clues in their spots (different spots for each kid) and watched the clock in anticipation of the bus coming to bring them home.

When the time was close I grabbed my camera and headed out the door.  As I was doing this my nephew got up from his nap and came out proclaiming, "I wake up!" So I put his shoes on him and took him outside to hide around the corner from the front door.  Campbell couldn't quite figure out why his crazy aunt was making him crouch behind the garbage can, but he is used to me so he went with the flow, and to his credit he refrained from twirling his finger next to his ear in the "cookoo" position.

As luck would have it (and for the first time in their history together) Blake and Trevor were quiet as they came up to the front door so the only shot I got of them reading their first clues was this one:

Then it was on to the hunt inside.

I got creative with my clue placement, and they did pretty well figuring out where each clue would be.

Their smiles made the sugar highs and empty wrapper garbage that I kept finding well worth it.  I think I may have found a new tradition. 

 Thanks Mom! 

 Hey, I never said I came up with the idea on my own...

Stay tuned for the rest of our Valentines Day shenanigans...a story that deserves it's very own post!